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AMD Radeon R9 M375

AMD Radeon R9 M375: Review of an Obsolete Mobile GPU in 2025

Introduction

In 2025, the AMD Radeon R9 M375 is seen as a relic of the past, yet this mobile graphics card is still found in used laptops and budget devices. Let's explore what it can do today, who might find it useful, and how it compares to modern solutions.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Architecture: The R9 M375 is based on the GCN 1.0 (Graphics Core Next) microarchitecture, which debuted back in 2012. This first generation of GCN aimed to strike a balance between performance and energy efficiency.

Process Technology: 28 nm is the standard for budget GPUs from the mid-2010s. In comparison, modern graphics cards use 5–7 nm process technology.

Features:

- Support for the Mantle API (a predecessor to Vulkan) and DirectX 12 (Feature Level 11_1).

- Lack of advanced technologies like FidelityFX or ray tracing. Basic support for OpenCL 1.2 for computing.

Conclusion: The architecture is outdated but suitable for basic tasks and older games.

2. Memory: Modest Specifications

Type and Size: 2 GB GDDR5 is the minimum standard for games from 2015–2017. Modern projects require 4–8 GB.

Bandwidth:

- 128-bit bus.

- Effective memory clock: 4000 MHz.

- Bandwidth: 64 GB/s (calculation: 4000 MHz × 128 bits / 8 = 64 GB/s).

Performance Impact: The lack of memory size and speed causes FPS drops in games with high-resolution textures (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077 or Hogwarts Legacy).

3. Gaming Performance: Nostalgia for the Past

1080p Resolution (Low/Medium Settings):

- CS:GO: 60–80 FPS.

- GTA V: 30–45 FPS.

- Fortnite: 25–35 FPS (no support for Performance mode).

- The Witcher 3: 20–25 FPS.

1440p and 4K: Not recommended — the card struggles even at minimum settings.

Ray Tracing: No hardware support. Software emulation (e.g., through Proton) drops FPS to unacceptable levels.

4. Professional Tasks: Just the Basics

- Video Editing: Working in DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro is feasible for 1080p projects, but rendering will take 3–5 times longer than on modern GPUs.

- 3D Modeling: Blender and AutoCAD can run, but complex scenes will lag. Wireframe modes are recommended.

- Scientific Calculations: Support for OpenCL 1.2 allows for simple tasks, but CUDA acceleration (NVIDIA) is unavailable.

Advice: For professional use, it’s better to choose cards with Vulkan API support or NVIDIA RTX with Tensor Cores.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Output

TDP: 50–65 W — typical for mobile GPUs from 2015–2016.

Cooling: Laptops with R9 M375 often feature compact coolers that can accumulate dust over time. Recommendations:

- Regular cleaning of the cooling system.

- Using cooling pads under load.

Form Factor: The card is integrated into the laptop's motherboard, making upgrades impossible.

6. Comparison with Competitors

Analogues from 2015–2016:

- NVIDIA GeForce 940M: Comparable in performance but better in energy efficiency.

- AMD Radeon R7 M365X: 15–20% weaker in gaming.

Modern Budget Analogues (2025):

- AMD Radeon RX 6500M (price: $200–250): 3–4 times faster, supports FSR 3.0.

- Intel Arc A370M ($180–220): Better optimized for DirectX 12 Ultimate.

Conclusion: The R9 M375 falls short even against the cheapest new GPUs of 2025.

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply: In laptops, a standard adapter rated at 90–120 W is sufficient.

Compatibility:

- Platforms: Only old laptops (e.g., Dell Inspiron 15 7559, Lenovo IdeaPad Y700).

- OS: Windows 10/11 (drivers until 2023), Linux (with limited support through open-source drivers).

Drivers: The latest version from AMD is Adrenalin 21.5.2 (2021). Updates have ceased.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Low power consumption.

- Supports DirectX 12.

- Sufficient for office tasks and older games.

Cons:

- Outdated architecture.

- Limited memory.

- Lack of upscaling technologies (FSR/DLSS).

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the R9 M375 Suitable For?

This graphics card is an option for:

1. Owners of old laptops looking to extend their life for document work, video viewing, and less demanding games (e.g., Half-Life 2 or Stardew Valley).

2. Students needing a cheap laptop for studying.

3. Retro gaming enthusiasts not wanting to spend on modern hardware.

Price: New devices with the R9 M375 have not been released since 2017. In the secondary market, laptops with this card cost $100–150.

Alternative in 2025: For $200–300, one can buy a laptop with Intel Iris Xe or AMD Radeon 660M, offering 2–3 times higher performance and support for modern technologies.

Conclusion

The Radeon R9 M375 is an example of how quickly technology becomes obsolete. In 2025, it remains relevant only in very niche scenarios. If you are not ready to deal with its limitations, it's better to look for budget newcomers—they will pay off in the long run.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Mobile

Launch Date

May 2015

Model Name

Radeon R9 M375

Generation

Gem System

Base Clock

1000MHz

Boost Clock

1015MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

1,500 million

Compute Units

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

28 nm

Architecture

GCN 1.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

2GB

Memory Type

DDR3

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

128bit

Memory Clock

900MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

28.80 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

16.24 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

40.60 GTexel/s

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

81.20 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

1.325 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

640

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

256KB

TDP

Unknown

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.2.170

OpenCL Version

2.1 (1.2)

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (11_1)

Shader Model

6.5 (5.1)

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

1.325 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon Pro WX 4130 Mobile

1.375 +3.8%

Radeon RX 550 640SP

1.344 +1.4%

Radeon R9 M375

1.325

Radeon HD 6970M

1.28 -3.4%

Radeon HD 8760 OEM

1.254 -5.4%